Cirl Buntings

 When I set out on this challenge of trying to see 200 bird species in a year one of those birds I really hoped to see was Cirl Buntings. As only ever seeing one brief view of one a few years back at Labrador Bay in Devon. So when news broke of 8 seen in a crop field near Old Harry Rocks I thought I better go and see them at weekend. Though not really sure of the best parking location and were the crop field was located I asked on a local forum and Blusesky for directions and tips on locating the birds. In  the mean time I read a very good blog by themanchesterbirder.blogspot.com about  a trip to see a Eastern Black Redstart and some fieldcraft and how some folk have stopped asking for approximate locations. This got me thinking I am I one of those folk, because I do find myself asking for locations of birds just like above. And in reality I did know how to get to Old Harry having been in the past, so If I new the way why did I ask for help and location of the birds. When if I had just gone and searched the hedge I might of found something for myself who knows, I think the reason for asking is it makes it a little bit easier with knowledge of the location making me feel more at ease at knowing I am in the right spot.

Sunday morning I set off once again in the darn rain will it ever stop raining this year? I think I read somewhere ( probable on social media) we have had more rain in Dorset these past two months than we did between 1991and 2020? Driving along Ferry Road I  was trying to make my mind up whether to go straight for the Cirl Buntings. Or to carry on through Studland Village and down to Jerry's Point to look for the Red necked Grebe that had been hanging about for a few days. As I drove past the view point at the top of the hill that looks out over the bay and golf course my hart sank a little as it seemed everywhere was shrouded in mist. I mad my decision to carry on to Jerry's Point because I thought the higher ground would most likely be covered is sea mist.

Arriving at the pull in next to Jerry's Point I was sure glad that I had left my wellington boots in the car as the path down was very flooded and water logged.

Having reached the point I was pleased I was able to see over to Brownsea Island. I started scanning around the the grebe. Though the first few scans I only picked up Great Northern Diver 4 and Red breasted Mergansers, Great crested Grebes, followed by 4 Black necked Grebe as nice as it is to see these wonderful birds it was not what I was looking for, so with that I looked in to the small bay to my left and scanned the shore line. Here if found some Grey Plover and Dunlin new birds for year, then suddenly I noticed a grebe pop up to the surface followed by another and there in this small bay was the Red necked Grebe with a Great Crested Grebe giving a great comparison. After seeing this grebe I decided it was now time to go and see if I could get to see the Cirl Buntings.

So I made the short drive to South Beach car park, were I had to pay the exorbitant price of a ticket in the National Trust car park of £3 an hour. Lucky for me a local birder was still at the car park and came over to give me some pointers and the direction to take from the car park. So after grabbing my gear I made my way up the track to Old Harry Rocks, but instead of checking the hedge line I carried on to the spot were the birds were last seen. As I slowly walked to where I could view the field several birds lifted off the field and into the hedge. Shortly afterwards I had a very brief view of a male Cirl Bunting which popped up on top of the hedge and I thought great wonderful better get a picture only for it to disappear, and then what I thought was a female 1st w type bird appeared  which I managed to photograph.

This is what Old Harry looks like on a good day

There are a couple of legends about Old Harry, but the one I like the best is about is about a Poole pirate called Harry Paye. He supposable harassed the French and Spanish. Using the stacks as look out points and by hiding is ship behind the stack. 

 Female 1st/w type Cirl Bunting?

 I digressed a little with the pirate story.

  

Shortly after this brief sighting the birds disappeared with a flock of Chaffinch, I walked up to the next gap in the hedge with another birder as a group of ten were seen at this spot. Though having got there a large flock of finches were flying about and headed out in to the field. I made the decision to move back down to the gate and wait as finches were coming and going to the hedge that was running out in to the field. It was not long before some Chaffinch and a large flock of Linnet turned up which kept me on my toes scanning at any slight movement in the hope it was a mythical Cirl Bunting. Perseverance paid off in the end as four wonderful Cirl Bunting appeared on top and along the hedge line.

Male Cirl Buntings

It is wonderful to be able to see these birds in Dorset, and it is due I believe to the credit of Conservationist and the work the did down in Devon which as enabled this wonderful and charmful buntings to spread along the cost in to Dorset and hopefully set up more breeding territories.   

81# Grey Plover

82# Dunlin

83# Red-necked Grebe

84# Mediterranean Gull

85# Skylark

86# Cirl Bunting

87# Raven 

I do not know if it is but I feel perhaps my blog is a bit same old same stuff? 

I know it is supposed to be all about birds but I think sometimes other stuff that I am interested in just might creep in to the blog, like my new other challenge of 100 plants in 2026 which I signed up to at bsbi.org as I thought this was something I could do while out birding. As  I have had an interest in wildflowers and orchid for a while now and of course during the summer months some dragonflies and damselflies.

  

  

January Ends

 As January was coming to a close and with me still stuck at 71 species for the month I headed off to Lytchett Fields area. I decided I would cut across the Sang and look at the Pools Field and look over Lytchett Bay from the relative new view point Rockley Point View. As I was walking through the field I noticed a raptor just gliding over over head, which turned out to be a Red Kite tick 72 of the year.  The bird was heading towards the field that now have pigs in, it  used to be the old wild flower meadow. I think the pigs are there to churn over the ground? 

This was a good move due to ticking off some of the commoner passerines like Greenfinch, Chaffinch and Meadow Pipit.

Chaffinch

Greenfinch

Like  most of January it was another wet and grey day and as I made my way to the view point it started raining again. The rain eventually stopped ( only to start again a little later) and I took the rain guard of the binoculars and unzipped the telescope. And scanned the bay there were stacks of Wigeon which I tried to count get up to a 150 birds but some of them were so far away it was difficult but there must of been over 200? The next bird to be spotted was a lovely pair of Avocet. I do like these birds in their black and white livery. 

Avocet

This month I have missed some really good birds due to being stuck in a factory milling components on a CNC machine, which is a Computer Numerical Controlled Vertical Milling Machine. But a ho that's life. 

So I managed to hit a target of bird species I was hoping for as when I set out on the 1st I considered 70 to a 100 species was a good number and having got to 80 species in Dorset and 1 in Hampshire I was quite pleased with myself. 

 

72# Red Kite

73# Greenfinch

74# Chaffinch

75# Avocet

76# Greenshank

77# Teal

78# Black- tailed Godwit

79# Stock Dove

80# Meadow Pipit

Now I must write about the one trip out of county into Hampshire to see a very rare bird.

Having heard about a mega sighting of a Killdeer I mulled over whether to go and see the bird.

I never considered ever seeing this North American wader and at the time I did not relise how rare the bird was until I found out that the last one reported in Hampshire was back in 1980 a very long time ago. So with the bird still staying I set off on Sunday morning of the 25th January. Once again it was raining very hard as I was driving to the location of Ripley Farm. Some of the roads were still slightly flooded and as I turned on to the road to the Avon Causeway it suddenly  dawn on me what if the causeway is flooded and what I am I going to do s it was the only way I knew of getting to Ripley. Lucky as I drove along the fields were well flooded but the water was only just beginning to lap the edge of the road.

I pulled into the layby and kitted up and to the long track down to the bird luckly the rain had eased off so I had a pleasant walk down. I was very fortunate that the bird even though distance showed very well and I managed to get some phone scoped shots of this wonderful little plover. I am sure glad I went to see the bird a mega lifer for me.

Killdeer

A Search for Glossy Ibis

 This afternoon of the 24th January 2026 I went in search of the Glossy Ibis I have kept missing since the start of January! I checked some of the places were they have been reported from, but should of realised they would probable would not be at these places given the amount of rain we've had recently because they were all flooded.

Though the afternoon was not a complete washout as I ventured forth to Slepe Heath and to the top of the hill to look over Arnes Moors just incase the Glossy Ibis were hiding out on the moors. And here I saw a wonderful female Marsh Harrier quartering back and forth over the reeds tilting this way and that and making adjustment for the wind as she went low over the reeds.

Now back when I was ill last week one of the things I did was to listen to birds song and especially to Common Crossbill as this was a bird I wanted to see this year as I do not look for them generally.  In fact my last records show that I first saw this bird back on the 31st May 2014 at Morden Bog! Going through calls on Xeno Canto, the Colins Bird Guide App and the good books by the Sound Approach , The Sound Approach to birding and Catching the Bug. As listen pays dividends ( and hopefully will find different birds now), because on the way back down the the hill I started to hear some calls that sounded familiar to me and instantly stopped by some pines and thought Crossbill and sure enough as I started to scan through the pine I found two Crossbill, then all of a sudden they left this pine but it was not 2 that left but 15 so I tracked the small flock to the next pine to hopefully get some pictures. The weather turned for the worst again and started rain as soon as the camera came out the bag. Though I managed some rather ropey images for the blog for my Bluesky .

The list is now up to 70 species  with recent additions .

68 Tawny Owl

69 Marsh Harrier

70 Common Crossbill

71 Song Thrush

Male Crossbill?

Hard to Tricky Birds to See List

  Recently having to be confined to home since the weekend of the 10th January because of contracting  the Covid virus for the first time in the 6 years that various strains have been about. I say the first time as every time in the past when I've been ill and carried out a test they always resulted in a negative. Still feeling the effects of the virus as I write on the 15th January, my list as stalled on 65 birds seen since the 1st January and with some very good birds being reported around the county it is a bit annoying to have caught this nasty virus as I was hoping the I would of been on a minimum count of 80 to 100 birds by the end of the month!

Though I was given some good advice about doing a year list from a local birder via a forum.

That was "remember listing is a marathon and not a sprint race" and perhaps make a list of the hard and tricky species to see in the county by looking through past Dorset Bird Club Reports. This is exactly what I have down while stuck in the house going a bit barmy. Some on the following long list might not seem hard or tricky see for others, but for me I think they will be as I bet most will turn up while I will be stuck in a factory machining lumps of metal. 

The list, those in bold will be lifers and I am sure there could be more add.

Whooper Swan

Garganey

Green winged Teal ? But if I see teal is the already seen as now lumped together.

Red crested Pochard

Ring-necked Duck

Scaup, Lesser Scaup

Eider

Surf Scoter

Velvet Scoter

Long tailed Duck

Turtle Dove

Red necked Grebe

Jack Snipe

Woodcock

Grey Phalarope

Wood Sandpiper

Spotted Redshank; yes Lytchett bay/fields and Middlebere are good reliable sites for this species. This year I would like to see one in the breeding plumage or partial plumage as the d turn up at these places .

Curlew Sandpiper

Temminck's stint

Purple Sandpiper

Little Stint

Pectoral Sandpiper

Black Tern

Forster's Tern; this bird as given me the run around in the past

White winged Black tern

Roseate Tern

Little Gull

Sabine's Gull

Caspian Gull

Skua - all types  only seen 1 great skua

Puffin

Red throated Diver

Black throated Diver

Petrels ?

Shearwaters - all type other than Manx's and Balearic

Bittern 

Purple Heron

Honey Buzzard

Goshawk

Owls - all five Long eared Owl

Hoopoe

Bee- Eater

Wryneck

Lesser spotted Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker; only because they are becoming hard to see at certain locations

Parakeet; only one left I think

Golden Oriole

Shrikes - all types

Waxwing

Wood Warbler

Yellow browed Warbler

Palla's Warbler

Raddie's Warbler

Grasshopper Warbler

Ring Ouzel

Nightingale

Fly Catchers - all types

Redstarts

Pipits other than Meadow Pipits

Brambling

Hawfinch

Redpoll

Crossbill

Lapland Bunting

Snow Bunting

Cirl Bunting

Ortolan Bunting

WOLF MOON MERLIN MAGIC

 On a very cold afternoon I went to a secrete heathland with a fellow bird Chris Hilder to hopefully catch up with a Merlin and perhaps a Hen Harrier 

While waiting around for one of these birds to make an appearance, I added another 4 birds to my list with Kestrel, Fieldfare, Dartford Warbler and Linnet.

Archive picture of a hovering kestrel

  While waiting and freezing my toes standing in one place the new years Wolf moon started to rise above the tree line. Just like a Star Wars Death Star. It was a spectacle moon .

Death Star Moon Rising

a very bright Wolf Moon

Just before the rising of the moon three snipe left the heath and flew over head and headed north west.

Even though it was a very cold afternoon/evening it was still enjoyable to watch Fieldfare and a flock of c50 Redwing.

Though the magic of the watch was when a Merlin came dashing in which I thought was a female/ 1st/w type bird followed by a male bird and then another male came in and three birds were perched up in the same dead tree. While these were resting up and female type bird came bombing in and speeding round the heath before settling down. Give both me and Chris 4 beautiful Merlin in one scope view pure magic to a very cold watch. Though even though we were getting chilly I did wonder how cold the Microlight flyer that went over was and where  he/she was heading.

Two of the eventual four Merlin

Perhaps a very cold Microlight flyer

Well the list is going slowly but I have enjoyed what I've seen so far and only on 56 birds so far still a long way to go. I think I am not sure whether to update when the next bird trip ( which is likely to be tomorrow) take place or at the end of month with and update of the bird list and places visited?

THE DORSET YEAR LIST BEGINS

 I was up before sunrise breakfast eaten and flask of tea and sandwich made and I was all set for a day of birding in my home county of Dorset.

I made up my mind the first stop was going to be at the Saxon Roundabout Wareham for the Glossy Ibis. 

Though on arriving there was no sign of them in the field, so I jumped back into the car and headed off to Ridge with the hope that the Russian White fronted Geese would be in the field along the Arne road. I was in luck as in the field there were Canada Geese and 37 wonderful Russian White fronted Geese.

Russian White fronted Goose

After this brief stop I made my way to Studland via cutting through Heartland Moore. This was an interesting drive. As along the narrow road I had deer jumping out in front of me Roe Deer by the cattle grid as you come down the hill of Slepe and Sika Deer as driving up to Scotland Farm and beyond.

Parking on Ferry Road near the gate for Red Horn Quay I made way down to the watch point. Hoping that yesterdays couple of Smew were still about, but talking to some the guys already there an scanning Brand's bay and the area off Goat Horn it was evident  that they were no longer here. So glad I went on the 31st December as they were lifers for me and the drake is a real smart bird. I suppose  I can take that as a first lesson in big year birding, that one must go and see the birds when news breaks if it is possible as they just might not be there the next day or gone within hours! Though it was good to get Slavonian Grebe and Great Northern Diver which were fairly close to Red Horn Quay.

Slavonian Grebe

Great Northern Diver

While waiting to see if the Smew was going to turn up one of the birders found a White tailed Eagle sat in a tree on the far side of Brand's bay. So I made an attempt to phone scope the bird, which did not come out that well most likely due to the distance and the wind.

 This  brown blob is the White tailed Eagle

Having meet with a couple of local birders, who  gave me directions for another place to see the Glossy Ibis and Tundra Bean Goose. I decided to go and see if I could find them at these places. Unfortunately the Ibis were still not happening for me as I could not see them at the location.

So with the location of the Bean Goose at Winterbourne Monkton I set off in that direction. 

I knew my way to the roundabout near Dorchester were you turn off for Weymouth, but from there I was very unsure. As I made my way along the Weymouth relief road I spotted the sign for Winterbourne Monkton and turned right. Due to my map reading skills being well lets just say rubbish to be polite. I drove along this road and past the geese unknowingly and ended up on a road called Church Street and some village. So I pulled off the road into a layby with a bridge in front of me and a sign saying to Batcoombe straight ahead and all other routes right. The road going over the bridge I thought might be the relief road but as I felt I was completely lost. I sent an SOS message out on the local Whatapps Group asking for assistance for location of the geese. Within minutes I had a call and several pin drops of the location. So I drive ahead turned right and was back on the relief road and heading back towards Dorchester. Then on my left the sign for Winterbourne Monkton appeared so I turned off and was back on the road I had driven along. So driving slowly I came across a car pulled in off the road and someone along the hedge line with a scope. So with the help of the local net work ( Whatsapp Group) I managed to find the 7 Tundra Bean Geese. I would like just like to  say THANK EVERYONE for the assistance in helping me locate these geese for my year list.

 Tundra Bean Goose

 

After this is it was now late afternoon and I promised the wife I would be home round teatime and I wanted to finish the day at my local patch Longham Lakes. So I set off in that direction and arriving at the Patch at 2pm which gave me two hours to walk round. There was not a great real difference in the birds from a few weeks past. So it was just a case of scanning the Tufted Duck for a lurking Scaup or Ringed necked Duck but no such luck. The best bird was the long staying Black necked Grebe.

So I called it a day with only 49 species seen I should of made more of the birds i saw hoping along the hedges but thought most likely Blue/Great Tits and though I can tick those off anytime.

The long staying Longham Lakes Black necked Grebe